ABSTRACT
EU-NATO cooperation at lower levels had taken place already since the EU's Nice Summit without any formal base. The informal contacts reached a new level when Solana became the EU's High Representative for the Common and Security Policy. Since EU-NATO meetings on a ministerial level do not occur very often, PSC-NAC became the key meeting format in all important areas of cooperation between NATO and the EU. NATO's quality as a subject of international law is today undisputed. It is also the view taken by the legal services of various international organisations, such as NATO's. The Nice Presidency Conclusions had also contained detailed provisions on 'EU-NATO relations in times of crisis', in the preparatory phase prior to a peace keeping operation. Hence, formal point of view, the matter of EU-NATO consultation from the time leading up to a crisis cannot be said to have been included in the subject matter regulated by the exchange of letters of 24 January 2001.
